Don Mattrick, former Xbox president of Microsoft, lives a lavish life (his $27M home is the largest in British Columbia) and is known for being a tough boss

On Monday, Mr. Mattrick shocked the gaming world when the Canadian-born executive announced he was stepping down as the head of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business to take over as the chief executive at ailing social gaming giant Zynga Inc.

At this time, the exact reasons for Mr. Mattrick deciding to abandon Microsoft for Zynga remain unclear, yet his departure has left Microsoft without a public face for its gaming business, with roughly four months to go before the launch of a new console.

According to Kara Swisher at All Things D, Mr. Ballmer is preparing a major restructuring, one that could see the departure of top execs and which will reorient Microsoft as a “devices and services” company. Where Mr. Mattrick may have fit into the new look Microsoft, for now, remains a mystery.

At any rate, no interim replacement has yet been named, with Mr. Ballmer revealing in an email to employees that Mr. Mattrick’s team will now report to the CEO directly. Phil Spencer, a lifelong Microsoft vet who is currently the head of the company’s worldwide studios, is rumoured to be an early frontrunner to succeed Mr. Mattrick.

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While initial reports suggest Mr. Mattrick’s decision to leave Microsoft was months in the making, questions remain as to what role the initial negative reactions to the Xbox One had on the timing of the decision.

In the days following E3 last month, Mr. Mattrick became the whipping boy for angry gamers who decried new features contained in the Xbox One, including digital rights management (DRM) policies that required daily online “check ins” and imposed restrictions on how used games are sold or traded. (Microsoft eventually backed down from these new features).

In the former Xbox boss, Zynga founder and chairman Mark Pincus — who relinquished the chief executive title for Mr. Mattrick — has found a seasoned turnaround expert who just might have what it takes to revive Zynga.

A lifelong veteran of the gaming industry — he created and sold his first game when he was still a teenager — Mr. Mattrick played a pivotal role in the development of some of the top titles at EA while he was president of worldwide studios, including Need for Speed, The Sims and FIFA Soccer.

Between the red ink on the balance sheet and the red ring of death that marred early versions of the Xbox 360 console, Microsoft’s gaming business was in rough shape before Mr. Mattrick arrived in 2007 and turned it into the envy of the industry with a rethought Xbox Live strategy and the Kinect motion sensing technology.

However, those same efforts which helped to revive the Xbox 360 and draw new users to Microsoft’s console, including the Kinect and a renewed focus on non-gaming entertainment features, may have soured some gamers on the initial messaging behind the Xbox One.

The Kinect, while bringing new users into the Xbox fold, did little to excite core gamers, who were similarly unimpressed with the new non-game centric (however advertiser friendly) Xbox Live dashboard, which highlighted entertainment offerings and Netflix, and was unveiled during his tenure.

One could argue that focusing on these features when a console already has a core install base of gamers who bought the machine to play Halo and Call of Duty helps to expand the target market for a console, but that focusing on the same entertainment features, while making sweeping changes to connectivity and used game policies, might not be the best way to launch a new device.

Despite his impressive gaming pedigree, Mr. Mattrick is seen by many gamers as more focused on entertainment features, rather than gaming. He counts big screen luminaries like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg among his friends and brought in the former president of CBS to create original television content for the Xbox One.

Still, Regardless of how he was perceived towards the end of his tenure at Microsoft and his reasons for leaving, Mr. Mattrick’s vision for the Xbox One will define this generation of consoles for the software company.

Kinect is an integral piece of the Xbox One offerings, and Microsoft’s decision to enable consumers to use the Xbox One as a means of controlling the live television feeds coming from their cable or satellite providers will be key to the device’s positioning as a living room hub.

“Imagine that you’re designing something for the next 10 years,” he said. “What trends are going on in the world? What are we learning about how consumers are using things? How are classes of content becoming aware of what’s going on from a consumer perspective, from an individual perspective, from a community perspective, and how are things going to innovate?”

“So it’s almost like we try to design something where we’re getting our feet in the running blocks and we know that we’re going to constantly have to keep pace with all the opportunities that will be presented in the TV arena and the gaming arena and with the Web.”

Mr. Mattrick may no longer be with Microsoft, but his vision for the future of gaming and, more specifically, Microsoft’s future in gaming, will live on.